A Bush-appointed federal judge has found that White House aides, such as Josh Bolten and Harriet Miers (and even Karl Rove, though he wasn't a part of this court case, and so not named) must show up when called by Congress to testify:

“The executive’s current claim of absolute immunity from compelled Congressional process for senior presidential aides is without any support in the case law,” Judge John D. Bates ruled in United States District Court.
...
Judge Bates, who was appointed to the bench by President Bush in 2001, said Ms. Miers cannot simply ignore a subpoena to appear but must state her refusal in person. Moreover, he ruled, both she and Mr. Bolten must provide all non-privileged documents related to the dismissals.

The NYTimes report goes on to note that "The White House is almost certain to appeal the ruling."

Of course they are. Tick, tick, tick...

In related news...Nancy Pelosi, said --- incredibly --- when asked about why she won't Impeach on ABC's The View this week: "I thought that Impeachment would be divisive...If someone had a crime that the President had committed, that would be a different story."

Huh? Did she seriously say that? Yes, she did. See the remarkable video at right for proof, along with Kucinich's response to her breath-taking comments.

Impeachment shouldn't be done, she continued, with two feet firmly planted in her Bizarro World, "unless you have the goods that this President committed a crime."

(Pardon us while we pick up our head from the floor...)

Pelosi may not have heard, but Kucinich recently filed some 35 Articles of Impeachment, exhaustively detailing many of the crimes that Bush has committed. We realize she may have been busy that night, but there was also a remarkable, six-hour hearing on these crimes held last Friday in the U.S. House Judiciary Committee when, if only for six hours, a sober reality seemed to have returned to Capitol Hill for the first time in some eight years.

Pelosi, and her counterpart Harry Reid, have clearly decided to avoid anything even resembling reality. They both ought to be replaced immediately.

Kucinich is turning in an online petition to Pelosi today, asking her to move forward with her Constitutional-duty of bringing accountability to the outlaws currently occupying the Executive Branch.

At those "not"-Impeachment hearings last Friday, Bruce Fein, a former Reagan Administration official noted that in the Bush Administration's intentional withholding of intellegence from Congress which countered the assertions of Iraq having WMD, that alone, as one of the founders, James Iredell, noted way back when, is, in itself an Impeachable offense of the highest order:

BRUCE FEIN: I'd just like to make one observation about the idea of misleading Congress as an impeachable offense. This is a quotation from James Iredell. Now, he was appointed by George Washington to be on the first Supreme Court of the United States. He was there, if you will, 'at the creation' --- to borrow from Dean Atchison. He was speaking to the North Carolina ratification convention.

And this is what he said:

"'The President must certainly be punishable for giving false information to the Senate. He is to regulate all intercourse with foreign powers, and it is his duty to impart to the Senate every material intelligence he receives --- whether he believes it or not. If it should appear that he has not given them full information but has concealed important intelligence which he ought to have communicated, and by that means induced them to enter into measures injurious to their country in which they would not have consented to had the true state of things been disclosed to them --- in this case, yes, isn't that clearly an impeachable offense?"

So, the founding fathers understood exactly the situation that has been alleged in this case --- not necessarily that President Bush lied, it's clear that he didn't give the full slate of information to the Congress that was available regarding weapons of mass destruction, collusion between Saddam and Al-Quada, or otherwise. And this is, as the Supreme Court has said, a virtual definitive interpretation of an impeachable offense, because it was made by someone who was there at the time, participated in the convention and ratification. It's not something that's concocted after the fact.

Here's the video of Fein's describing the above at the heaings, along with another look at Pelosi's extraordinary comments on The View...

It's almost never off my mind! That Branson fellow is coming up with some public spaceships. It's totally doable! We flock into their offices, grab them, stuff them in Branson's spaceships and just flip the blastoff switch! Pft. We can start fresh.

I just hope the American people are paying close attention to these criminals like Con-yaws,Pel-lo-se,Obmama, etc., and stay home on election day unless Ron Paul or someone else running on some other party ticket would contest the election.
They should know that there is a price for deceiving the people.

Hey oath breaker pelosi, how many THOUSANDS OF HUMANS BEING would still be alive today if you had stood up for the Constitution, instead of your own sorry compromised ass?

Clinging to power is not the same as wielding it!
Do you think they were 100% sure they had the votes to impeach nixion when WATERGATE started, or maybe, they new they had to DO THE RIGHT THING, instead of calculate for an equally corrupted party?

"I thought that impeachment would be divisive." Really? That's like a doctor saying, "I thought that removing the cancerous tumor from your brain would give you a headache."

Pelosi was particularly disgusting on the Daily Show the other night. Too bad she filibustered the interview, because JS couldn't get in one of his trademark make-powerful-leaders-look-like-assholes remarks, but she took care of that by herself.

If I remember correctly as soon as pelosi was installed as house speaker it was her ____ memoirs she had to first tend to, as the first woman speaker.
~
It was at that moment I said, what'sa matta with this picha . . .

The main election race I am interested in this November is that Pelosi loses her seat to Cindy Sheehan, that act alone would send a BIG message to these freaks of nature.
Of course I guarantee this race will be STOLEN! without any doubt.
Pelosi should be indicted for treason.

Myself I am voting for Cynthia McKinney because I flatly refuse to vote for the ever so slightly lesser of 2 insane evils.
If I were to place the 4 candidates on the ballot on a scale from 1-100 as far as electability with 1 being not electable and 100 being perfect.

I would put McKinney at about 90, she would be higher if she chose a good VP.
I would put Bob Barr around 40.
Obama would be around 20
McSame is a 1 for obvious reasons.

Let's assume that Pelosi is not stupid. Could she be afraid of blackmail from the wiretapping? Maybe...
The most likely excuse I see is that she is trying to be pragmatic. Better to upset the base than lose the 2008 elections! The problem is that since there have been so many crimes committed by this administration, Congress is unconditionally surrendering to any future President. Does she prefer to wait a generation and let the international courts in Den Hague deal with the mess???
The failure to hold officials accountable now will encourage future lawbreakers. If conservative judges can uphold the US Constitution, why not the so-called opposition?

It is long past time to dump both Pelosi and Reid. Those two are acting as Bu$hit enablers in his misfeaseance in office. It is the failure to stand up for the people that has caused me to withhold sending dollars to the DCCC and the DSCC.

greg0, listen to what Bruce Fein says about this. Pelosi et al. are increasingly complicit in all the things that they would impeach Bush for, and that complicity grows by the day. This is probably what she means when she talks that "if he committed a crime I'd impeach him" nonsense. She's probably waiting for Bush to do something that would not have any implications for her and her gang of criminals.

Hey BH, are you kiddin me? It's not as if the massses know about any of this because most msm won't tell the masses the truth. We are a concentrated but determined bunch. But hey Lou and Kitty, thanks for the report yesterday, even though I don't agree with your immigration conflagration.http://www.cnn.com/video...isk.cnn?iref=videosearch

And hey oath breaker pelosi, can't wait till you and diane-the-mukasey bringer and war profiteer benificiary ARE GONE! Maybe our countrymen will take notice, and put the israeli lobby on the run. And please remember, I'm an honorary jew!

I'm with you Nunyabiz.Vote for someone who speaks and ACTS the truth, Cynthia McKinny:

And on top of all of that, how come the un stood by without any rebuke or consequence I can recall, while america broke INTERNATIONAL LAW and started our illegal preemptive war? Just another bunch of corrupted greed junkies IMO.

If you read the MSN article linked above on the Anthrax suspect's suicide, don't you think it's awfully odd that not only is no MOTIVE given for this individual's involvement in the ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION of US Senators, but there isn't even a hint of information that would make this individual a likely candidate. Why was he a "person of interest" other than he had access and experience with the substance (as I'm sure many others did also)? Was a raving right-wing lunatic with Hannity, O'Reilly and Savage books at his home? Did he think that Democrats were responsible for 9-11?

I mean, really, why this guy? The smell test on the Anthrax case says that it was politically motivated, and we all know that it was Leahy and Daschle who could've blocked passage of the Patriot - they and they alone.

BH, voting for the superior candidate that would clearly be the best for the country thus my own best interest is NOT "throwing my vote away".
It is making it count in the ONLY way that any vote can count.
However wasting a vote on a candidate that you know is corrupt and wont do a damn thing about all the crimes committed the past 8 years, THAT is truly wasting your vote.

So my question to you is "Why throw away your vote on a party that you KNOW has done NOTHING whatsoever, has not only allowed but in fact aided and abetted in every way treasonous war criminals giving them anything he wants?"

The democrats have clearly been complicit in these crimes and the cover ups, I flatly refuse to vote for known criminals.
I am not the one throwing my vote away.

As for this guy that was ASSASINATED in order to stop the investigation into Bush & Cheney & Co and their involvement in the Anthrax attacks.
Just add another crime to the ever growing list.
All of the MSM have now latched onto this BS and are all proclaiming his guilt without a single shred of evidence. More complicity in the cover ups of the crimes committed by this administration.

At one time, Conyers said he only needed 19 Congress-critters to come forward to stand for impeachment and then he would act. Maybe there are 19 on his committee and that is what he really meant, but Kucinich says he managed to attract at least 24 to his impeachment presentation. On a percentage basis, I'd say that is a significant gain in support. But even if it weren't, I think Pelosi shold not be standing in the way. She needs to be retired pronto.

I fail to understand how I person, with the title of "Speaker of the House", has the total power to say yea or nay to Impeachment. I thought this was a body of legislators who, together, brought up, discussed and voted on the business of our country. What's wrong with this represented "Unitary" rule and why is not someone stepping up to remedy the situation.

It is time for everyone to mail Speaker Pelosi a copy of Rep. Kucinich's 35 articles demanding what doesn't she understand about them - demand that she explain why every article is actually legal.
I figure if we can flood her office with tens of thousands of packages she might get the message - ~4000 packages per ton. [At 33 pages double sided that is probably about 8 oz with envelope (.16 oz per page for 20 lb paper makes 33 pages 5.28 oz)]

As is well known, Arizona Politics is completely controlled by the forces of Organized Crime, under the aegis of the Lansky-Bronfman arm of the Syndicate. For that reason, Democrat, Republican, or Independent, ALL Politically destined Money comes from; hence ALL politicians are property of, the Mob. For that reason, John McCain is properly NOT “A Senator from Arizona,” but, like the other Senator from Arizona is “The Senator from Organized Crime!” Considering the criminal nature of the Administration we already have, the ‘election’ of Senator McCain as the FIRST “President from organized Crime,” might not be very noticeable insofar as the organized destruction of the Middle Class and the enrichment of the already wealthy the difference of the new administration from the one we have might not be noticeable. HOWEVER, the source of the McCain wealth, and the evident nature of his controllers, is not even mentioned by the mainstream media, who are evidently at least complicit, if not actual co-conspirators. For this reason, Obama’s refusal to limit himself to Federal Matching Funds as McCain (falsely) did becomes obvious. There is an unlimited amount of Mob money available to finance 527’s to denigrate Obama, and if the Mob gets tired of the game, Cindy can outspend Barack at least ten to one. The fact that this is not apparent in the MSM is obvious, and the reason therefor is simply that the “Capitalists,” whose differences from the Mob are not apparent, are in control of said MSM. Somehow the Public HAS to become aware that McCain is the Mob’s creature, and will deliver the Nation to the Syndicate if his election is not prevented.

What a vile creature is this "VIP," what vile creatures are all these "professional" pols! But space pods are too good for them - they deserve Shakespeare's "cistern for foul toads," IMVHO, of course.

Seriously, we need to clean out the cesspool that Washington has become. Maybe once the army has been totally shattered by these psychopathic morons we'll be able to march in with our pitchforks. One can only hope. Oops! An audacity...

Hey Brad, after you're done picking your head up off the floor, why don't you organize some folks to greet Madam Speaker on the LA stop of her book obfuscation tour. It's going to be just up on Mullholland and would make a good post. We can't let the War Criminals and their enablers think that the citizens are afraid of a little confrontation.

makes you wonder whatever became of the little airman that Norman Menitta talked about with the 9/11 Commision, i'm sure he could clear things up as to exactally what that order the Cheney was so sure was still in effect was all about

Brad, your comment about your head rolling, after Nancy made her comment, somehow reminded me of a quote I once saw by Gore Vidal (whom, I believe, at times, overstates cynicism to make a point):

"It makes no difference who you vote for - the two parties are really one party representing four percent of the people".

*
Some other quotes relating to the subject of party politics and presidents:

"Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.

Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.

As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.

Democracy is supposed to give you the feeling of choice, like Painkiller X and Painkiller Y. But they're both just aspirin.

Now you have people in Washington who have no interest in the country at all. They're interested only in their companies, their corporations grabbing Caspian oil.

'...That loyal retainer of the Chase Manhattan Bank, the American president...'

The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent.

The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return.

Yeah Pelosi said it: she can't get some of the democratic agenda passed if she's busy trying to impeach Bush.

Heh she gave it away right there. But it ain't about being too busy. She's accepting a pittance (and possibly some illusory political security) in return for not turning up the heat on those criminals, and she's selling out our country.

Peeeeee-losi is a neocon and is obviously complicit in the crimes of the bush regime. If not for her complicity, this regime would have been brought down long ago. She's even spouting off the right-right BS of "where's the proof"--like we're all a bunch of idiots, which is obviously what she thinks. I wonder how many, if any, women were convicted of war crimes during the Nuremberg trials? Maybe she can be the first woman for that as well.

Our govt has an investation of traitors that must be exposed and the guilty forever disgraced in the pages of history. As another commenter stated at another blog website, these are very bad people and while we're all making polite discussion, they're taking us down. Enough with the polite talk already, we need to take action and display our anger and outrage--the traitor Pelosi has been very successful at keeping us at bay.

I'm not taking some ultra-left position that elections are totally insignificant, and that we should refuse to vote to preserve our moral purity. Yes, there are candidates who are somewhat better than others, and at certain times of national crisis (the Thirties, for instance, or right now) where even a slight difference between the two parties may be a matter of life and death.

I'm talking about a sense of proportion that gets lost in the election madness. Would I support one candidate against another? Yes, for two minutes-the amount of time it takes to pull the lever down in the voting booth.

But before and after those two minutes, our time, our energy, should be spent in educating, agitating, organizing our fellow citizens in the workplace, in the neighborhood, in the schools. Our objective should be to build, painstakingly, patiently but energetically, a movement that, when it reaches a certain critical mass, would shake whoever is in the White House, in Congress, into changing national policy on matters of war and social justice.

Pelosi's comment, taken alongside her defense of why she views herself to be a good Democratic Speaker "Well, we increased the minimum wage, didn't we?" makes one think of someone rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic while it was sinking.

And this recent hissy fit by Republicans in the House because Pelosi, as Speaker, wouldn't allow a floor vote on offshore oil drilling stands in stark contrast to Pelosi letting the recent FISA fiasco take place, with retroactive immunity being given both to the criminally complicit telecoms and members of the Bush administration, by derailing court cases being held to uncover the truth.

Pelosi (and no doubt Steny Hoyer) is doing everything possible to block criminal proceedings beginning against Republican members of the most corrupt administration in American history, while offering up crumbs (important crumbs, yes, but still less important than investigating and stopping the Bush/Republican crimes).

So, Pelosi "allows" Rep. Conyers to hold "impeachment" hearings, but with the word "impeachment" being forbidden during proceedings, and with no follow through being contemplated...because anti-impeachment Pelosi will make certain that nothing will ever be considered by the full House involving holding George W. Bush (and Dick Cheney) accountable for their criminal acts. Which, no doubt, is why "inherent contempt" will never be employed against all the criminal Republicans thumbing their noses at Congress and refusing to even appear, even after receiving an official, constitutional, congressional subpoena.

Who would have ever thought that a Democratic House Speaker would actually be running interference for the Bush Crime Family, as well as all the culture of corruption Republicans and lapdog DLC DINO Blue Dog Democrats?

I don't know which whole Shaul Mofaz thing you're talking about, but you could do a Google video search. Here's a little bit on ForaTV for those who want to get the flavor. Here's the original quote that got me hissing and spitting about his evil.

In the most explicit threat yet by a member of Ehud Olmert's government, Shaul Mofaz, a deputy prime minister, said the hardline Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, "would disappear before Israel does".

Otherwise I'm swimming with the alligators today and you could probably pin it down better than I could... since you know what you're talking about....

Thanks 99 for helping, but I'm looking for the cspan video of the thing...it was quite enlightening as far as media casts goes. I was just trying to post the whole original show, which doesn't seem to be available, which I thought you may be more better than I at archiving.

The link you gave was an hour and thirty-seven minutes long. How much more complete do you want? The links I gave had almost as much. Considering I have no idea what you're talking about, WHAT further could be posted now, how further could I help? I admit I'm sleep-deprived, but if you can link one thing from C-SPAN you can link any of them.